Leveling up our education system
Hello friends,
I have been thinking about school in general lately. It's crazy how many people are in school and instead of learning, they are doing something else. And I'm literally one of those people: I'm writing this intro here right now in class. Why? Because I need to talk about the education system. Ladies and gentlemen, I have some interesting thoughts I need to share with you about why the education system is outdated and what some amazing ideas would be to change it up.
Times are changing and we are evolving. Our education system needs to be ready for that. We have problems to address. Let's begin
Current problems
Most of the time when you are in school, you simply don't care: You have been going to school for ages because you don't really have other options, and you are stuck in the classroom learning stuff that is nice to know, but that won't necessarily help you out, ever. You are under constant pressure, because there are grades telling you "how good you are in a subject". On top of that, there is constant social pressure, which gets even worse when you constantly compare your results with the ones of your classmates.
School feels like a competition. And not one that many people enjoy.
We have to memorize stuff just to write it down on a piece of paper to get a mark that defines our future.
We are getting taught stuff just to forget it again. We care about the mark, not the content. This is a complex problem that needs to be solved.
And don't get me wrong: The concept of school is amazing, and schools are one of the most important structures that we have in our society. But we need to activate that desire in young people to learn. And we can't do that with a system that motivates through punishement.
Here are some inputs that I think could change the system.
The Revolution
First of all, I want to talk about an important idea: Schools should focus on collaboration, not competition. Right now, you are learning to get some mark on a piece of paper, and that's it. You are then comparing your marks against the ones that your friends have. And if you aren't the one comparing, the companies hiring you will be. You focus on this mark. And here I have a bold idea.
We should be changing up the grading system. For that, I would implement something like that: Let every teacher until children reach the age of 12 or 14 define their own way of measuring the skills of the students. No mandatory tests. No real grading system with numbers or letters. Focusing on each students strength and focusing on getting the basics right on their weak points.
On top of that, give the children options to learn as many things as possible. Industrial work, cooking, music and so on. In Switzerland, we already have a lot of those things which made school at least interesting when you were a child.
Reducing or getting rid of homework is also something that would massively increase motivation. I honestly don't get the point of homework. If you are forced to do shit, you don't want to do it. There is nothing more annoying than getting a ton of homework (which in the worst case scenario will be graded), just to then do another one and another one.
Following up on that: Another point for increasing motivation is showing students why they are learning something. The most important things should be repeated more often. The teacher should make sure that everyone gets the basics right. Everyone. The faster students can go on and learn more, but everyone needs to understand the basics on a subject.
Also, school should be focusing on things like creativity as well. I feel like that some people who maybe aren't that skilled in subjects like mathematics or physics could potentially be very strong in classes that involve creativity. Those people are completely left out in the classical grading system.
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing that it's stupid. - Albert Einstein
That's also why people who have bad grades feel like that they aren't as clever. Also, it builds up even more pressure to focus on their weakneses, instead of giving a student the freedom to explore their strengths.
My wish for you
All of the above points are points that i believe could really change the school system for the better.
But the thing that is most important to me is this last point:
I have heard so many people saying that school has destroyed their motivation to learn something, to read something or to just do something that feels similar like school work.
There are so many interesting things for you all to explore out there, so go out there and do exactly that: Find out about the craziest places in the world, learn how to skydive or find out why airplanes can fly. Or maybe you like psychology? Go out there and try reading a book, attending that cooking workshop or trying out that dancing class.
Find that litte kid in you again who loved to explore the world.
My challenge for you
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to challenge you in trying to find joy in learning again. Are there things in life that you find interesting? Maybe how the human body works? Maybe what Trauma is and why it exists? Maybe you want to know the average penis size of a beaver? (I know you want to know now)
Whatever it is you find interesting, there is information out there. There are things to explore.
I want you to pick out a book about whatever interests you, buy it and start reading it. I want you to read at least 30 pages this week.
If you can't decide on any book, I recommend "The Ape that understood the universe" by Michael Shermer. Most epic book you will read in a while. The topic is Evolutionary Psychology.
My Song of the week
GIVE ME A SIGNAL!
Banger. I present to you: "Signals" by KDrew
Thank you so much for reading today's blog post. I wish you an amazing week!
Much Love,
Kim